Forever, Harry Potter
by The Dark Knight's Revenge
Summary: I want people to know before I die that it wasn't all one free ride of Fame. I want people to know what really happened all those years ago. I'm ready to share my life. These are the last letters of Harry James Potter, The boy who lived.
1. The First Year

When you're writing your feelings or thoughts down on a piece of parchment, probably the hardest thing is knowing where to begin...

I suppose I could start by saying that i'm Harry Potter.

A bit lame, isn't it? The boy who lived, great savior of the wizarding world, doesn't know how to write his own bloody autobiography...

I'll just start at the beginning.

I could really write pages and pages and pages about my life, some of which i've never told anyone, not even Ginny, my wife.

I just want people to know, when i'm dead and gone, that it wasn't one trip of glory and fame. My life is just a story of a boy who was incredibly lucky, who turned into a man somewhere along the way.

* * *

><p>You know the story of how my parents were betrayed and murdered, so there's no point in saying my feelings on it when I was only a year old at the time. I must say though, growing up without parents is the hardest thing a child can go through.<p>

With my Aunt and uncle, there was no guidance, no love. Nothing. I had to learn to take care of myself. More than anything, I wanted to be normal.

I guess I overshot the mark a little... Turning into a wizard at age eleven is not what muggles would call normal.

I remember the night Hagrid burst in the door, shaking the whole cottage on the cliff. Just moments before, I had been blowing out the candles on a birthday cake scratched into the dirt on the floor where I was sleeping.

It was as if my birthday wish had come true.

From then on, I wasn't just the rat under the stairs; I was Harry Potter, the boy who lived. The boy who hadn't been seen in the wizarding world for over a decade.

It was as if my world were transforming before my eyes.

Before I knew it, I was on the Hogwarts express with no clue where I was going, what to do there, and I felt incredibly lonely.

Loneliness was nothing new to me, growing up at the Dursley's. After a few years though, I had gotten used to it. This kind of loneliness was different...

I didn't have to stay lonely for long. Ron Weasley took care of that, and right on his heels was Hermione Granger. Little did I know, that in the two meetings I had on the Hogwarts Express that day, would make the two best and truest friends I ever had the fortune to make and have, even to this day.

I'll never forget the sensation I had when I first got into the boat leading all of the first years to Hogwarts. Seeing the Castle for the first time across the inky lake was the most exhilarating feeling I ever had. I will never forget it.

The only thought I had in the ride across the lake-

I was Home.

* * *

><p>To this day, I still marvel at my sorting into Gryffindor. It was my first true feeling that I could actually do something. The sorting hat whispered in my ear all the things I could have if I went into Slytherin, all the greatness I could achieve.<p>

Now that I think about it, it must have been the Horcrux piece in me that lead the Sorting Hat to believe I was Slytherin.

All that talk of greatness... It helped me make my choice. I didn't want to be great or powerful... I just wanted to be normal. That's why I chose Gryffindor.

* * *

><p>In my first year, there were many new things for me. One I remember best, by far is the feeling of my first flight.<p>

I don't know why I was so obsessed with getting Neville back his rememberal, but it just seemed like the right thing to do, and my instincts just took over. The final maneuver that allowed me to catch the glass orb felt like the best thing that had ever happened.

Little did I know what it would lead to.

When Professor McGonagall came striding out of the castle, calling my name sternly, I thought I was finished. Sure, I had saved her office window from getting smashed, but I had also directly disobeyed Madame Hooch. I was going to get expelled for sure.

She led me to a classroom and asked for Wood, which I thought was a type of punishment.

When a burly fifth year came out to stand in front of me, I realized I was looking at my new Quidditch Captain.

Youngest seeker in a century.

I hadn't been at Hogwarts more than a month, and I was already making history.

* * *

><p>I made history again when Ron and I defeated that troll at Halloween. It was that incident that really brought me, Hermione and Ron together. I suppose two boys saving her life after making her cry was a big deal for Hermione; she never left our side after that.<p>

To this day, I am amazed at the bonds of friendship I picked up at Hogwarts.

Ron and Hermione never gave up on me. Not when I nearly killed them both facing Fluffy the three headed dog on my quest for the Sorcere's stone; not when Ron nearly died playing wizard's chess to help me get through to the final room.

That is true friendship.

* * *

><p>Seeing Voldemort's face grow out of the back of a professor I called friend was a jarring experience. This... man was the one who murdered my parents. He killed them and laughed as the light went out of their eyes.<p>

It made me want to kill him.

I wanted to hurt him so badly for what he had done; not just to me, but to the hundreds of others, who's lives Voldemort had ruined.

That's why I was so relieved when the Sorcerer's stone had chosen me. Even as I was led up the mirror of Erised, and saw my parent's faces smiling back at me, I knew I had to get the stone, just to get it away from Voldemort for good.

When he touched me, using Quirrel as his form, his hands burned away, turning Quirrel into a pile of ash. I unknowingly turned my back on him, and his soul ran right through me on it's escape from Hogwarts.

The feeling when he went through me was a mixture of agonizing pain and chilling cold. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't move...

And for the first time in my life, I heard my parents screaming as they died.

* * *

><p>When I woke up in the hospital wing, every thing came back to me in a rush. I could still hear my parents screams ringing in my ears.<p>

I didn't have the heart to tell Dumbledore; he wouldn't understand anyways. He told me about the bond of love my mother gave me when she died, and a couple pieces came together for me.

Sure, Voldemort had disappeared, but I got the feeling as I stood on the Hogsmeade platform, looking back at the Castle that was my home.

This was only the beginning.


	2. The Second Year

I'm not entirely sure what I expected for my second year of Hogwarts, but what I got certainly wasn't the usual experience, I'm sure...

It started with the Dursleys. They had to lock me in my room like a cage. Then there was Dobby. Then the letter. Then the car.

The car... Bloody hell. I felt so guilty for helping Ron steal it... Especially after the Weasleys had been so kind in allowing me to stay. Though it did help us later... if we hadn't stolen it then we would have died in the forbidden forest.

The whole beginning of the term was a fiasco, to say the least.

Well, the middle was too.

Come to think of it, maybe the entire thing was a fiasco. Being twelve was weird. Not just because my best friend hit puberty quite a bit before I did, but it's just an awkward age to be at all around.

Speaking of puberty, I suppose that the second year was really when I noticed romance. I noticed how Ron began to look at Hermione after the whole petrification incident , and I suppose that was when I began to look at Ginny that way too... Even though she was only eleven and nearly got us all killed.

In a way, the whole chamber thing really opened my eyes to the fact that maybe it wasn't all that safe here at Hogwarts. I mean, we almost had people die! I got stabbed with a basilisk fang and nearly died for the second time in my school career. I mean, was there already a rule that I had to almost die every single year?

I honestly don't think that I was prepared enough after that. I saw Voldemort in two forms and I didn't stop to think about how that couldn't possibly be the end?

But then again... I was twelve. I had exams to worry about.

Another thing I had to worry about that year was the sudden negative attention my being the "famous" Harry Potter brought me. Helped along by Lockhart, it was almost excruciating. I was used to being bullied by Dudley and his lackeys, but here it was a hundred times worse.

If there was anything good about getting attacked by a basilisk, it was meeting my future wife. Funny how nearly having the life sucked out of you by a book and getting a fang through your arm brings out future attraction.

I was so scared of losing her then. I would have done anything for Ginny, anything to keep her with her family and alive where I could keep an eye on her. It was an odd mix of brotherly concern and the beginnings of a crush. Needless to say, I was oblivious to the fact that she adored me.

There were other friendships to be made; Ron and Hermione and I were closer than ever, and things could only get better... Or so we thought.

My second year at hogwarts was really my last year of being innocent. After that, everything was different.


End file.
